The Wanted Veer's London Dreams

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Omnipresent! A word that can easily be linked with the so-called brat of Bollywood and the original machoman of India, Salman Khan. From ads to national songs, North India to South India, with chiks to saree-clad woman, Salman seems to be rediscovering himself for the new decade. Watching his recent films leaves one sympathetic to one of India's most admired(erstwhile) stars. None wanted him to be 'Wanted' and aam-junta had a sigh of relief after wives of theatre-owners saw to it that their husbands divorced 'Mr n Mrs Khanna' to sustain their livelihood. And what happens when Chatur Ramalingam turns creative? Yeah,rightly said, 'Shit happens'. Confident that there was no much audience left for him in the North, chatur Sallu dubbed his iconic disaster 'Veer' into Telugu and vowed that it would be another Magadheera(the Telugu movie that threatened to topple Ghajini as the top-grossing Indian movie ever before 3 Idiots broke everything available). What happened is best not spoken of and being from Andhra, I am too embarrassed to even say the word 'Veer' after watching it(yeah...I am part of the disaster-chasing fanatics).

Mile Sur Mera Tumhara v2.0

3 months!! That's the time from my last post. Thanks to some traveling, cycling, new-year party, workplace and ofcourse to the supremo, laziness. Here I go live again, sneaking out from my blanket on the day after the day India became a 60-year old Republic(whoa..I got that right), waking up to an SOS call for some disaster management. A decade after I watched those children of my age running across in tricolor costumes to depict the Indian flag at the climax of one of Indian history's best shows of national integration or in other words, the 'Mile Sur Mera Tumhara', the modern makers of India seemed to have come up with MSMT v2.0 called PMSMT- Phir MSMT. And modern India was more than ever liberal in spreading PMSMT in the form of SOS-tweets and desi-'911'-scraps.

The PMSMT asked for trouble from the word GO. The song being most synonymous with Indian integration was wrongly chosen to showcase what ultimately was merely a show of synthetic glamour. Though I watched it as a kid I could recollect most of the video even today. Here's a taste of that memory

Go Green!!

Image Courtesy: outdia.com

It takes me half an hour to reach the nearest shopping mall from my home on a weekend evening. But a couple of weeks back I was surprised to have reached the place in 10 minutes. Something was abnormal, the bus driver was no Schumacher and looked like he was driving it reluctantly with a frowned face as though he was late for a date. The roads looked empty too, wait a moment.....I don't hear the familiar "trrrrrrr...tot tot tot tot trrrrrr" sound at all. There is not a single auto plying across the busy highway and yes, now I get the reason for my astronomical speed in reaching the mall. Today is the city-wide auto strike. The strike stands from 6AM - 6PM. On my way back in the night I got into a waiting auto and as expected the autowallah demanded much more than what it would take. He seemed friendly though and spoke English too(Bangalore hain saab!!)

Irony of Life

Image Courtesy : NDTV India

Ufff....finally I am posting something after nearly 50 days. After lots of travel over the last few weeks I sat down to post this last week only to find my broadband cable split and dangling. (Muck Fe!!:P). Thanks to my manager who surprisingly has got little work for me this week and also for not reading my posts(:P), I now have time to blog from my office. A lot of travel over the month showed me few things that we won't generally know in our daily lives. These few things that I would be mentioning, unfortunately have nothing to cheer. The first one being the pathetic plight of a few flood-victims and the second being the unanimous cry by the autowallahs of Bangalore for justice (which I would mention in my coming post.)

Differently Original

You must have watched law-defying moves by Indian actors(especially guys from the South) that led to Newton and Einstein pleading the Almighty to give them one more chance to prove their theories right in the heavens.Out-of-box thinking has always been the part and parcel of Indian cinema, be it fights or songs or dialogue delivery. This video shows another instance of why our own Bollywood beats its western big brother hands down. Ask yourself when did Superman hook up with Spiderwoman? Bollywood had done it decades ago :P

Superman and Spidey shake a leg together

For all those MJ fans who haven't yet got out of their mourning, here's a southern "Thriller" that's campaigning hard to be part of Janet's tribute to MJ show. This one would surely rest MJ in peace for ever and ever.

Desi Thriller

No wonder why this one could not break the records unlike MJ's Thriller. So the next time your manager asks you to think out-of-box, follow a few tricks the Indian cinema has taught you---you need not be original, just be different!!

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Swayam-War

Firstly a warning!! You may feel disgusted reading this post and could lose your temper too[:P]. Secondly a clarification, most of us,including me have a strong sense of disgust towards this queen of controversies that I would be mentioning. Yet I just couldn't brake my mind from following her show with utmost enthu!! You must have by now found out(and probably cursing yourself to have been on this blog-page) who she is, ladies and gentlemen, it's none other than (everyone's) Rakhi!!(how many mouths rolled out with "shit"??). For about 4 weeks I ardently followed the show inspite of my busy schedule. All I long for is something to relax along with a glass of juice after my office hours. This is the case with thousands of professionals across the nation. What we want is a reason to laugh, criticize and get entertained, without bothering about what that reason actually is. And this show had that "it" factor immensely present inside it.

Jai Hind!!

Which is your favorite song? Before reading further make sure you have your choice crystal clear. Now ask yourself why do you happen to like it? Having answered that ask yourself when was the last time you heard it? And finally, how many times roughly did you listen to it? Have these answers with yourself. Now lemme ask you a simple question, what if someone made you listen to it everyday(yes my friend,i meant "everyday") and probably if you had to sing it aloud too? Your favorite would soon be the most detested. How many times can a Northie listen or hum "Jai Ho", a Tamilian hum "Unnale Unnale", or an Andhrite hum "Cheliya Cheliya" and how many times can you hum your chosen favorite song? May be a few hundred of times. Now just have a look at this video before reading further :)

How many times have you sung it and listened to it? I am pretty sure everyday of your schooling atleast. A sense of pride grips one's body irrespective of your origin, be it Punjabi or a Tamilian, a Gujju or a Manipuri. That's the beauty of this song you just listened to. I am sure I can listen to it daily and can sing it with my heart all through out my life. And I am sure so can you. Just wanted to share this thought that incidentally occurred today. Happy birthday independent INDIA. Wishing everyone a Happy Independence Day!!

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Need of the Hour

It's here, it's in the air around us and you could be the next victim! The scare seems to have spread faster than the virus itself. After SARS, Anthrax, Chikungunya, Bird Flu etc of yesteryear, its now the turn of Swine Flu to challenge mankind. With such an alarming rate, more and more hospitals should bear the onus to screen people. The deadly disease is spreading its wings rapidly and it's a herculean task that the Health Ministry now faces, to curtail it. This can be taken as a classic example of "preparation at the n-th hour". The Ministry has overlooked 5 simple words - 'Prevention is better than cure', which ironically stands 'out of the crowd' in every advertisement the Ministry has put up all the years henceforth. The disease has been in the news over the past couple of months, mostly in the Western world. I think, this is the first time that the Eastern world stood up to screen people coming from the West, another classic piece of reversal of the practice where the West many a times have screened people from the East for reasons beyond medical too.

False Standards

Everything International!! That's what has become the norm of the day. Be it clothing, consumer products, automobiles etc....only one thing seems to be paying off, namely "Brand International". I see no offence though, with people owning such things though it may leave a bigger hole in one's pocket than desi goods. What's surprising and sad is to see people, especially the urbanized, totally blindfolded being in pursuit of "International". I had the chance to look at one of the International schools last month that has seen a meteoric rise in its admissions every year. The entrance looked truly international with fountains leading the way to the building. A single building, probably the size of a 4-storied apartment stood amidst a garden that seemed to encircle it. Nothing much to describe from now on, as it was a very normal building that had classes from pre-kg to 10th with classrooms distributed within the 4 floors. Roughly around 16 rooms were present, each accomodating at the maximum, 10 students!!

Class is Forever

I came, I saw and I conquered. This is what the cricket's new favorite version T20 has stated blatantly to its other long established predecessor, the ODI. It just took one tournament in South Africa to turn the tide and the tournament couldn't ask for anything as a boost to the abridged version apart from a win by the cricketing stalwart, India back in 2007. Popularity sky-rocketed and India cashed upon the chance and gave birth to club-rivalry in cricket for the first time in the form of IPL and thus comes to an end the story of the conquest and rise of power of the new emperor, the T20. Money, glamour and most importantly fresh talent from all parts of the nation had one common platform to perform. All of a sudden cricket has been reduced to power hitting and ball-bashing. The biggest player of the day was to be the golden LUCK from now. Classical Dravid cover drives, Elegant Ganguly sixes and Godly Sachin straight drives now paved way to Deadly Yuvraj pulls and Mighty Yusuf out-of-the-park hits.

Nation's Shame

It was not Aarushi's murder nor was it the Mumbai girls racket that would tempt the nation. It was only a slap that a middle-class bank manager got by a middle-aged man, namely a Memebr of Parliament from A.P. Even as the countless number of news channels repeatedly kept showing the video of the M.P slapping the bank employee, the M.P when approached by the media expressed his dissatisfaction on the issue being blown out of proportion. His claims that he went to the bank only after that employee bluntly ignored his call and even verbally abused him at the premises has already found it's place in "Best Bed-Time Stories" book available across your street. Who in this country would ignore any politician's call who already has 10 murder,5 rape,3 money-lobbying,2 public assault and 1 fake-ID cases pending against him/her? And when it comes to speaking, even the three commander-in-chiefs take a bow before such goons in white kurta/dhoti.

'Poor' Sachin

Which team should Sachin play for in the next IPL season? All you guys are wrong, not anymore for Mumbai Indians because he belongs to Nellore!(Did I hear someone say wtf?) Not one,but two ration cards bearing his name and photograph(!!) have been issued by the Government of AP. Not surprisingly are two bogus residences Sachin owns in Nellore.

Andhra has got one of the highest number of white ration card holders in the country, thanks to the Government's strategy of satisfying larger section of the junta during the last elections. With the Congress coming to power for a second term it now has issued to cut down the issued ration cards to half the numbers. It was a mere election campaign strategy that has fooled the innocent common man. It was not too far that a ration card bearing the names of Sonia,Priyanka and Rahul was found in posession of a politician but went under the sack due to mere political and money power. And not long before even Sania Mirza was issued one. So the norm could be "if Sania Mirza herself was issued why shouldn't the nation's foremost sportsman?"

Very cleverly the Government has declared to cut the number of ration cards to half under the pretext of slashing the thousands of bogus cards. It was the same Governent that issued these cards just to attract the people. Fake named cards, 2-3 cards per home, etc were issued with full knowledge of the officials issuing them and though there were reports in the media previously they were simply ignored by political power. Having sworn into power for a full 2nd term inspite of marginally won the state elections and with the cricketing God's Andhra-link revealed the Government of AP now has been forced by the strong opposition the state now has to make this check rather than a corruption check as claimed by them.

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The Fallen Maharaja

Save the crashing plane! Air India's plead to save it from the clutches of a mega crash landing has got the Government of India stepping up to show it the light at the end of a mammoth tunnel. The Government's stand to help the airliner only if it restructures its policies needs to be appreciated. I would say it has been a self-made crisis by the airliner. It's been more than a decade that the carrier has been bruising itself repeatedly. The foray of private carriers and the steady increase in the services by foreign carriers added salt to its wound. Country-men take pride while travelling in their own airliners. I haven't seen many feeling totally comfortable having got a ticket of Air India.

Public Sector IT Industry

The worst hit by recession have been the thousands of engineers that the nation has produced over the years working in private companies. Back in 2001-02, it was primarily the IT industry that had to bite the dust, but the current monster has gobbled up many industries. Being the world's largest outsourced market, India had to face the heat too. And Obama's "Bangalore to Buffalo" stance did little to soothe the Indian worries. The collapse of investment banks shut the doors of hundreds of Indian start-ups which mainly were linked to the IT market. It's good to see however Indian giants like TCS and Wipro continue with their business with minimum lay-offs. Adding oil to the fire was the Satyam controversy that has rocked the very foundation of the Indian IT industry and has now over 10k employees holding their breathe to hear the worst news of their lay-off sooner or later.

Both the Same

A week ago, a popular national daily carried a centerfold half-page entry which focused on women's role and position in today's world. It was a very pleasing article that talked about woman's slow but powerful entry into the world of business,sport,media etc. 6 pages away from that centerfold print,deep at the bottom of the page was a victory. Above this victory rested a defeat. The Indian Men's cricket team couldn't defend the T20 WC and had to bow off without much sparkle a couple of days back. And as every newspaper had been carrying out their own survey on what went wrong with the team, this daily also had a half-page article investigating in vain the roots of the defeat. And below this, probably as a reminder to the readers was the Indian Women's cricket team's hard-earned victory that put them in the semi-finals of their World Cup.

Race for the Top Spot

There could be many good things but the best can be only one. With most of the Engineering entrance results out and a few more to follow, it's busy time for the future Engineers and more importantly to the parents. The present decade has seen a very rapid growth in the total number of engineering colleges as well as the quality of education in the country. The growing number of colleges has increased the competition between various colleges and all are trying to put up a very healthy show in terms of infrastructure development, personality development, an increase in the type of courses, etc. A number of private colleges now have better facilities than many good government colleges. Though many private firms have started colleges with a pure business mindset, whatsoever have succeeded both in creating good leaders as well as helping themselves monetarily.

Mera Number Kab Aayega?

4 years prior to graduating from an engineering college, at the time of admission, all parents give the same thought, would this college fetch my beta/beti a decent job offer? Well all daddys and mummys out there, you have one more question to answer now...Would there be a recession 4 years down the line from now? Being from the elite 2008 freshers' batch, I along with many have had the privelage to bear the brunt of ongoing ominous-recession period.People have got so used to lay-offs and firing, that no one is really surprised not to find his/her system at the desk the next morning.

Wicked Pleasure

It was heart-breaking to see Indians bow out without much fight in the ongoing T20 World Cup. No matter what ever were the miscalculations made by the shrewd dude, Dhoni, we no more are the World Champs. Now that's a very bitter pill to swallow to a team that went in as the tournament favourites and I am pretty sure Indians will bounce back. They are not a weak team, it just was not any Indian's day out in England. I still have not fully recovered being a big-time follower of Indian cricket , but at the same time I want a wicked pleasure that I would just love to experience.

Youngistan

What did India see after the fall of the British Raj? The Gandhi Raj! The difference definitely being, people have themselves elected the new Raj time and again over nearly 6 decades. The Congress looked pretty weak a decade back which was the heyday for BJP which had very able leaders and saw itself begng welcomed by the people of India inspite of always holding the tag of Hindutva in the eyes of many. But that was past and we all know what has happened a couple of months ago. BJP and its allies lost another chance to see the brave old man Advani at the supreme post.

Best Chance

Can we ever have a South American or an European nation ruling our beloved sport a.k.a Cricket? Ever since I started passionately following the King of all sports, as every Indian thinks I have only seen the elite 9 ICC member nations playing it. It's so sad to digest the fact that cricket has the 2nd largest audience after football which I am sure is the prime sport in more than 100 nations. The FIFA policies are no where in comparison to what the ICC has. It has encouraged and funded soccer super-powers like Brazil, England etc to open training centers in countries like India and Sri Lanka. You would be surprised to know that Liverpool recently started their talent-tapping center in Pune and ManU is too planning to follow it.